Missouri is in the spotlight as the next American stop of 2025 of the Gelato Festival World Masters worldwide tour, the international traveling competition in search of the world’s best gelato flavors. On February 11, Carpigiani North America will organize at the HESS headquarters in St. Louis (MO) the Carpigiani Challenge, where 15 elite gelato chefs will compete for a spot in the second North American Semifinal in 2025. The new edition of the Gelato Festival World Masters 2022-2025 is organized by Gelato Festival in collaboration with Carpigiani Gelato University, the globally renowned school for successful gelato entrepreneurs, and Sigep – Italian Exhibition Group, the world’s leading B2B show dedicated to artisan gelato, pastry, bakery, and coffee. The tour has the mission to spread the culture of artisan gelato throughout the world.
On the competition day, the chefs will prepare their gelato in a specially equipped laboratory; then, a panel of industry experts, local chefs, food journalists will taste and evaluate each gelato. The top three flavors will go on to compete in the second North American Semifinals of Gelato Festival World Masters in 2025.

Gelato Festival debuted in Florence in 2010, inspired by the creation of the first gelato recipe by the versatile architect Bernardo Buontalenti in 1559. Since then, the event has expanded its borders, first to the rest of Italy, then to Europe and – starting in 2017 – the United States, with a total of 80 Festi-vals held, before embracing the entire planet with the world championship of Gelato Festival World Masters 2021, which concluded in December 2021 - with the victory of Adam Fazekas from Buda-pest - and saw a record of 3,500 gelato artisans judged by international juries.